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CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNİCATİON ISSN 1712-8358 [PRİNT] Vol. 6, No. 4, 2010, pp. 90-103 ISSN 1923-6700 [ONLİNE] www.cscanada.net www.cscanada.org Conversation Analysis as Discourse Approaches to Teaching EFL Speaking ANALYSE DE CONVERSATION EN TANT QU'UNE APPROCHE DISCURSIVE DANS L'ENSEIGNEMENT EN ANGLAIS ORAL POUR LES ÉTUDIANTS QUI APPRENNENT L'ANGLAIS COMME UNE LANGUE ÉTRANGÈRE SHEN Qi1 XIA Tian2 Abstract: Conversation has been of primary interest to language researchers; since natural, unplanned, everyday conversation is the most commonly occurring and universal language “genre”, in that conversation is a speech activity in which all which all members of a community routinely participate Among approaches to discourse analysis in speaking, conversation analysis is one of the practical devices in teaching spoken English in EFL classroom. This paper tries to look at the theoretical basis for conversational analysis and explore the feasibility of applying a discourse approach to speaking in teaching a group of learners. Key words: Conversation Analysis; Discourse Approach; EFL; Spoken English Resumé: La conversation a été d'un intérêt primordial pour les chercheurs de langue, parce qu'une conversation naturelle, non planifiée et quotidienne est le genre de langue le plus fréquent et universel. La conversation est une activité de discours dans lequelle tous les membres d'une communauté participent régulièrement. Parmi les approches d'analyse du discours dans l'oral, l'analyse de conversation est l'un des dispositifs pratiques dans l'enseignement de l'anglais en oral pour les étudiants qui apprennent l'anglais comme une langue étrangère. Cet article tente d'examiner les fondements théoriques de l'analyse de conversation et d'explorer la possibilité 1 College of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University, 210097, China. Ph.D Candidate in College of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University, and Associate Professor in College of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 2 College of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016, China. Ph.D in translation studies, Associate Professor in College of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016. *Received 7 August 2010; accepted 3 October 2010 90 SHEN Qi; XIA Tian/Cross-cultural Communication Vol.6 No.4, 2010 d'appliquer une approche discursive à l'oral dans l'enseignement d'un groupe d'apprenants. Mots-clés: analyse de conversation; approche discursive; anglais en tant qu'une langue étrangère; anglais parlé 1. THEORETICAL BASIS FOR CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS Conversation has been of primary interest to language researchers; since natural, unplanned, everyday conversation is the most commonly occurring and universal language “genre”, in that conversation is a speech activity in which all which all members of a community routinely participate (Riggenbach, 1999: 55). Conversational analysis is an approach to discourse dealing with the linguistic analysis of conversation, and strongly associated with ethnomethodology (Johnson and Johnson, 1998: 89). Richards et al. suggest that conversational analysis refers to the analysis of natural conversation in order to discover what the linguistic characteristics of conversation are and how conversation is used in ordinary life (1992: 106). Conversation analysis, according to Hutchby and Wooffitt, is the study of talk and is the systematic analysis of the talk produced in everyday situations of human interaction: talk-in-interaction (1998: 13). The analysis of conversation was first put forward by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974), initially focusing on studying the smallest units of conversation (Burns et al., 1996: 18). The work of Goffman (1976; 1979) and Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974) is important in the study of conversational norms, turn-taking, and other aspects of spoken interaction (McCarthy, 1991: 6). Conversational analysis is often thought to provide a foundation for discourse analysis in general, and even more importantly, it is believed that an understanding of the structures and processes of conversation is essential to an understanding of language (Riggenbach, 1999: 55). Conversation analysis is associated with the North American discourse analysis tradition (Burns et al., 1996: 18). The work of American discourse analysis tradition emphasizes the research method of close observation of groups of people communicating in natural settings, including types of speech event such as storytelling, greeting rituals and verbal duels in different cultural and social settings (McCarthy, 1991: 6). Conversational analysis is concerned with the structure of conversations, dealing with such matters as turn-taking, topic change and conversational structure—rules governing the opening and closing of conversations have been studied in detail (Johnson and Johnson, 1998: 89). The role of conversation analysts is to observe what happens between the participants in a conversation and what conversational norms and patterns emerge as an interaction unfolds (Burns, et al., 1996: 18). To be specific, major aspects of conversational analysis will be looked at as follows: Turn-taking Turn-taking is investigated to look at “the shape of the turn-taking organization device and how it affects the distribution of turns for the activities on which it operates” (Sacks et al., 1974: 696). It is concerned with when and how speakers take turns in spoken conversation, and can be aligned to types of conversation or different features of conversation, for example: Overlaps in conversation mark instances of disagreement, urgency, and annoyance, or a high degree of competition for a turn. Little competition for turns marks interactions which are more cooperatively negotiated. Pauses between turns may indicate that a speaker is searching for the correct response or is signalling that an unanticipated response is likely. 91 SHEN Qi; XIA Tian/Cross-cultural Communication Vol.6 No.4, 2010 Longer turns signal their endings by such things as pauses, laughter or fillers such as anyhow or so. (Burns et al., 1996: 18) Turn-taking is highly structured and speakers signal when they are prepared to give up the floor, often nominate the next speaker (verbally or non-verbally) and the next speaker can nominate him-or herself simply by starting to speak (Johnson and Johnson, 1998: 360). Sacks et al. (1974) proposed a model of conversationalists’ behaviour which they presented under the heading of a simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation (Cameron, 2001). The model from Sacks et al. has two main elements as follows: The turn-constructional units Sacks et al. (1974) define these units as grammatical entities, like a complete clause or sentence; but it might also be suggested that the units of spoken discourse are delineated primarily by prosody (intonation, stress, pausing) rather than grammar (cited in Cameron, 2001). Turn-allocation mechanism The second element of the simplest systematics model is a mechanism for allocating turns to particular participants in a conversation (Cameron, 2001). Change of speakership should occur at a TRP. One practice for allocating the next turn is “current speaker selects next”; the other is “self-select”. (Sacks et al., 1974: 703) Conversational styles Yule suggests that there are two kinds of styles in a conversation as follows: High involvement style: Some individuals expect that participation in a conversation will be very active, that speaking rate will be relatively fast, with almost no pausing between turns, and with some overlap or even completion of the other’s turn. High considerateness style: Some speakers use a slower rate, expect longer pauses between turns, do not overlap, and avoid interruption or completion of the other’s turn. (1996: 76) Adjacency pairs Adjacency pair is a sequence of two related utterances by two different speakers; the second utterance is always a response to the first (Richards, 1992: 8). Burns suggest adjacency pairs are the patterns which occur in conversation when the utterance of one speaker is likely to be followed by a particular kind of response and the response can be either a preferred response or a dispreferred one (Burns, et al. 1996: 18). In conversation, the two turns together are called an adjacency pair (Johnson and Johnson, 1998: 5). Repair In conversational analysis, repair is a term for ways in which errors, unintended forms, or misunderstandings are corrected by speakers or others during conversation (Richards, et al. 1992: 394). Johnson and Johnson also suggest that repair is a feature of spoken discourse in which a speaker retrospectively changes some preceding item (1998: 274). There are four types of repair according to Hutchby and Wooffitt: Self-initiated self-repair Other-initiated self-repair Self-initiated other-repair Other-initiated other-repair (1998: 61-63) 92 SHEN Qi; XIA Tian/Cross-cultural Communication Vol.6 No.4, 2010 2. ANALYZING A SAMPLE EXTRACT 2.1 Information about where, when, how the text was collected This part of conversation is an extract from an interview program, namely Larry King Live at CNN on October 16. The interview was recorded as a video tape from TV. 2.2 Relevant social and cultural information Larry King Live is a famous and popular talk show in the world. King has presented many shows over the decades and has interviewed presidents, prime ministers and many other celebrities. The extract is collected in his interview with the first lady of the States, Laura Bush. The first lady is talking about her personal feeling about the war in Iraq and her husband’s sudden and unexpected visit to Iraq on Thanksgiving Day, 2003. 2.3 Transcription of the text (K—Larry King, the host, B—Laura Bush, the first lady) K: Do you (.) do you deal painfully with the daily reports out of Iraq? B: =Sure=, // absolutely.* K: How do they affect you?* B: I mean, that’s an hh very painful part of this job.